Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems may employ a variety of components to achieve a desired conditioning capacity, for example, motors, engines, compressors, or the like. Generally, HVAC systems such as centrifugal chiller systems employ a centrifugal compressor for providing a cooling effect through vapor-compression of a working fluid. The centrifugal compressor may be powered through a turbine, diesel motor, gasoline motor, electric motor, or any other rotation means. It should be appreciated that in the event the rotation means fails, operation of the centrifugal chiller system ceases. For example, in an electrically-powered centrifugal chiller system, brown-outs or power glitches may shut down the chiller system in its entirety. Furthermore, in other electrically powered HVAC systems including motors, the brown-outs or power glitches may also cause system shutdown. Moreover, in some electrically-powered HVAC systems, start-up procedures are lengthy processes which may hinder operation of the system much longer than the duration of the actual power failure or brown out.